Digital three-dimensional manufacturing, also known as digital additive manufacturing, is a process of making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model. Three-dimensional printing is an additive process in which one or more printheads eject or deposit successive layers of material on a substrate in different shapes. The substrate is supported either on a platform that can be moved three dimensionally by operation of actuators operatively connected to the platform, or the printhead or printheads are operatively connected to one or more actuators for controlled movement of the printhead or printheads to produce the layers that form the object. Three-dimensional printing is distinguishable from traditional object-forming techniques, which mostly rely on the removal of material from a work piece by a subtractive process, such as cutting or drilling.
Current three-dimensional object inkjet printers have significant limitations with regard to the viscosity range of the photopolymer materials that can be ejected, with most materials having an upper limit between 10 and 20 centipoise (cP). After the photopolymer materials are ejected onto the object being formed, the materials are cured with a ultraviolet (UV) or other appropriate radiation source. These photopolymer materials can be expensive and may physical properties, such as strength and stability, which are useful for the production of sturdy objects capable of a wide range of functionality. Other additive manufacturing methods, such as Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) or Stereolithography (SLA), expand the range of materials used to produce products. There materials are more durable and are usually much cheaper than cured photopolymer materials. The surface finish of parts made using FFF is not as good as those made using UV inkjet and UV inkjet can more easily make parts with high resolution surfaces. Therefore, a system capable of producing composite objects having cured photopolymer materials and the materials used by the FFF and SLA methods would be advantageous.